by TQM report,
The Qualitative Magazine (TQM) on Tuesday 10th November, 2020 in Jos, Plateau State organized a One Day Capacity Building Workshop of Persons with disabilities in Plateau State on Disability Rights.
The Executive Director, TQM, Agbo Christian Obiora in his opening remark/overview of the TQM said that the workshop is part of the activities of TQM Connecting Our Voices to The World Project being supported by Oxfam Voice Nigeria. He said that the need for the capacity building of persons with disabilities on disability rights arise from the fact that there has been a lot of silence on the part of PWDs over demands to ensure that the provisions of the existing Plateau State Disability Law is fully implemented.
Speaking further, he said that Plateau State was first to have disability law in Nigeria, when they got their law as far back as 2005 and they were first to have a disability rights commission still at the course of their gathering of stories from different local government area in Plateau State, a lot of persons with disabilities are not aware of the rights and they are not taking advantage of the provisions which government have committed to via the law. It was on the premise that the TQM decided to kickstart a campaign “Know Your Right” to reawaken the consciousness of persons with disabilities in Plateau State to begin to carry out aggressive advocacy to bring to the public domain their alienable rights to get government to live up to their commitments and for all sectors to know their roles and responsibilities for the good of persons with disabilities.
He told the leaders of different cluster of disabilities at the meeting that they are chosen to work for not only for themselves but for those in the rural areas and those who may have disability in future.
He charged them to hold government accountable because the disability is there to work for them and they should ensure that they understand every section of the law and demand for the implementation of all the provisions without exception.
One of the facilitator, Barrister Yusuf Iyodo, Director, Media and Publicity, Association of Lawyers with disabilities (ALDIN), in his presentation on relevant laws on disability where he spoke about United Nations Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities(UNCRPD), Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act 2018 and Plateau State Disability Rights Law 2005. He educated the participants on these existing laws and dwelled more on Plateau State Disability Rights law, discussing sections that deal on accessibility, education, transportation, prohibition of discrimination etc.
Speaking further, he told the participants that the law is as good as nothing if they do nothing about the implementation. He urged them to jettison all forms of conflicts going on among them and form a common front to articulate their demands and channel them to the appropriate quarters. He also urged them to begin to demand for the right in any given opportunity.
The participants shared their experiences on the discriminations they are facing from attitudinal, accessibility, employment, communication, etc. They were advised to keep the engage the disability law more because it treated most of these challenges. They asked to continue to engage themselves and relevant sectors to understand their roles in the implementation of the law.
The second facilitator, Joshua Yenle, a radio presenter at Highland FM, Jos, while presenting a paper on the effective use of the media to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, urge the participant to stop being shy from using the media to advocate for the rights. He told them that it is their right to use the media to air their views and they should ensure that they are very knowledgeable about the issues and be objective while airing their views, avoid being insulting for better understanding of your points. He emphasized the importance of the media to advance any cause because the media is there to educate, inform and communicate. He added that it doesn’t matter the language you use, what matters is that you have gathered the facts and you are knowledgeable about what you are talking about. He urged them to use the conventional media as well as the social media to drive the conversation.
Some of the participants who spoke at the end of the sessions promised to work with persons with disabilities within their locality to begin to engage the authority for the improvement of the living condition of persons with disabilities. They urged TQM to organize more of this awareness workshop bringing people from other sectors to interact one on one with persons with disabilities and also to listen to TQM in order for them understand their roles better.
They unanimously agreed to break the silence and began to ask questions on the implementation of the disability rights. They planned to adopt hash tag BREAK THE SILENCE in their proposed campaign.
This programme was interactive as participants had opportunity to share their experiences relating to discrimination in all sphere of their lives.
The event also witnessed a presentation of modernized tricycle to John Satmak, TQM published his story where he lamented that his iron made tricycle is bulky and as such no taxi accepts to carry him whenever he wants to go out. The story got the attention of Rev. Georgia Ugah in Enugu via Facebook and she contacted us on Facebook and donated a modernized tricycle for him.
Mr. John was excited for receiving a gift from someone that he has never seen. John simply said that “I don’t know what to say, I can only said thank You”.
All Participants including their aids and volunteers got the latest and 15th Edition Publication of The Qualitative Magazine which is part of CONNECTING OUR VOICES TO THE WORLD being supported by Oxfam Voice Nigeria.
SOME PICTURES OF THE EVENT:
